FROM start-ups to global multi-nationals, family businesses are powering national economies and employment opportunities across Asia.
With globalisation and digitisation coming into play in the economic landscape, first and second generation of family owners in Asia now face a vastly different environment than when they first ventured into the world of business.
Among the challenges faced by family businesses include managing growth, professionalising the business and the family, acquiring talent, managing succession and managing conflicts.
These were the issues that teams of undergraduates from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines had to resolve at the first-ever Asia Champion (undergraduate category) of the BIRLA Asian Family Business Case Competition in Manila recently.
Organised by the Basant and Sarala BIRLA Professorial Chair in Asia Family Corporations at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), the case competition was positioned as a platform to bring together students across Asia to analyse unique real-life family business issues. The competition was seen as an avenue to harness focus to produce solutions that were original, innovative, relevant and practical.
Malaysia was represented by a four-man team from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unirazak), comprising team leader Cheryl Shalini Das, 22, a Bachelor of Arts Business Management (Honours) final-year student majoring in entrepreneurship, coursemate Jason Arvin Robert Tan, 23, Megat Firdauz Putra Megat Zulkarnain, 21, a Bachelor of Arts Government and Public Policy (Honours) final-year student; and Mohd Hafifuddin Rusdi, 22, a Bachelor of Arts Business Management (Honours) second-year student.
The team was coached by Associate Professor Dr Mohar Yusof from Unirazak’s Bank Rakyat School of Business and Entrepreneurship.
The Unirazak team aced the three rounds of the competition, which comprised a case involving family businesses each. They analysed and presented their solutions to a panel of judges.
Cheryl kept the team members focused on the task at hand, Jason Arvin was the financial expert, Hafifuddin the analyst while Megat Firdauz was chief communicator.
Unirazak consistently ranked top place in all three rounds, including the final round, beating teams from the other teams.
Megat Firdauz won the “Overall Best Presenter” award, while Jason won the “Runner-Up Best Presenter” award. The team took home a prize money of US$2,500 (RM10,000) and a trophy. The winners were also granted a partial scholarship from AIM to do their master’s degree at AIM.
“What differentiated us from the other teams was that we were actually friends who came together to join the competition. So our teamwork was more natural and not forced,” said Megat Firdauz.
“We knew and leveraged on each other’s strength and did not contradict each other during our presentations. Also, our strategy was to role play each of the family members involved in the cases given, to make our solutions come alive and more convincing,” said Hafifuddin.
“We had the opportunity to showcase and test the knowledge and business competencies that we gained from our lectures through our attempts to identify and solve business problems.
“We used the business tools theory in real life and even had to use the ones that were not in our syllabus, like the Blue Ocean Strategy,” Cheryl shared, adding that they started early and practised on family business cases almost two months before the actual competition in Manila.
Jason said they analysed a diverse range of family business cases in the three-day competition, from furniture and textile companies up to theme park equipment manufacturers.
“As we learnt, explored and engaged the challenges faced by the family businesses within the limited time we had for each case, we became solution finders in areas which we were not familiar with,” he said.
Cheryl said AIM had invited the Unirazak team to do a presentation at the Family Business Conference in Cebu in the Philippines at the end of next month.
On whether the experience has any impact on their future plans, Megat Firdauz said the exposure provided insights into how important family businesses were and how they were dominating businesses in Malaysia and Asia.
“With this in mind, I will take the knowledge of family businesses I have gained into my future in policy-making or policy analysis,” he said.
Cheryl said her involvement in the competition has enabled her to polish her presentation skills, especially in front of a more mature and knowledgeable audience.
“It’s great to be able to apply theory learned in classes in a family business case competition. I might consider family business consulting upon graduation,” she said.
Jason saw the competition as an opportunity to network and connect with fellow students from other institutions in Asia.
“This could be a stepping stone for all of us as a team in financial consulting.”
Hafifuddin agrees. “I plan to start my own business and this competition has given me an insight on business strategy and conflicts that may arise. And we will make a point to keep in touch with the other teams to strengthen the network.”
AIM is an Asian pioneer in management education. The institute was founded in 1968 by a consortium of prominent business leaders, Philippine academic institutions and the Harvard Business School.